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Microsoft announced that it is on pace to invest USD 50 billion by the end of the decade to help bring AI to countries across the Global South.
The announcement coincided with the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in the national capital. The tech giant revealed that its initiative follows a five-part programme designed to make artificial intelligence diffusion real at scale. The company aims to ensure that communities have the necessary resources to access and apply AI to local priorities with trackable progress. "Today in New Delhi, we're sharing that @Microsoft is on pace to invest USD $50 billion by the end of the decade to help bring AI to countries across the Global South. Our five-part program is designed to make AI diffusion real at scale, so communities have what they need to access AI, trust it, and apply it to local priorities, with progress they can track. In India, that includes training 5.6 million people in 2025 and a goal to equip 20 million Indians by 2030, including through Microsoft Elevate for Educators, supporting two million teachers across 200,000+ schools," Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said on X. The company's latest AI Diffusion Report indicates that artificial intelligence is moving at an impressive speed, yet adoption remains uneven. Usage in the Global North is currently twice that of the Global South, and the divide continues to widen. This disparity affects regional economic growth and the potential for AI to expand prosperity worldwide. In an article on Mircrosoft website, Smith along with Natasha Crampton, Vice President and Chief Responsible AI Officer of Microsoft, observed the historical context of this digital divide, comparing it to the infrastructure challenges of the previous century. They noted that the India AI Impact Summit has placed this challenge at the center of its agenda. "For more than a century, unequal access to electricity exacerbated a growing economic gap between the Global North and South. Unless we act with urgency, a growing AI divide will perpetuate this disparity in the century ahead," the article said. It emphasised that while solutions require substantial work from governments and the private sector, AI offers a major prospect for catch-up economic growth in the 21st century. The five-part program focuses on building the infrastructure needed for AI diffusion and empowering people through technology and skills for schools and non-profits. It also seeks to strengthen multilingual and multicultural AI capabilities while enabling local innovations that address community needs. The final component involves measuring AI diffusion to guide future policies and investments. "As a company, we are committed to playing an ambitious and constructive role in supporting this opportunity," the article noted. The program intends to provide the Global South with the tools needed to utilise AI for economic and social advancement. (ANI)
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